


I know I protect the light of lichen

by satbiym



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: ... yes i am serious, Character Study, Experimental Style, Gen, Lio Fotia's Backstory, Origin story for Lio Fotia's earring, head empty only lio fotia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28454607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satbiym/pseuds/satbiym
Summary: Lio Fotia used to have a sister.
Relationships: Lio Fotia & Original Character
Kudos: 16





	I know I protect the light of lichen

**Author's Note:**

> Lio Fotia makes me feel the entire range of human emotion and then some.
> 
> I wrote this a while back while crying to [MEMBA - For Aisha](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR8sE9ubyTI&ab_channel=MEMBA) because… yes. Fic title is from [Dress by Sylvan Esso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e_t_1vPhTY&ab_channel=AdamKaiser).
> 
> This is a more experimental piece that I wrote in one sitting, with zero planning. Brain empty, only Lio Fotia.
> 
> I decided to post this now because life is short and being able to feel anything in this world is a blessing. I bid thee good tidings for the last day of 2020 and hope the upcoming year and new decade will bring you the happiness you need.
> 
> Live your truth unapologetically and proudly, friends, that’s all any of us can do. It’s what Lio would want us to do.
> 
> Happy Reading, my friend.

Lio _knows_ what he looks like.

He knows what people think when they look at him, especially as his appearance makes them fall under the illusion that when it comes to him, they can get away with unleashing the beasts they have lurking underneath

At least until Lio _shows_ them what it means to house a beast too large for your body and circumstances.

The thing with Lio now is, when he talks, people listen.

_Now._

but that hadn't always been the case

born to a family who gave too many fucks about public appearance and too few about their own flesh and blood

he was taught from a young age that children should be seen and not heard

to be controlled and not control

to be polite and proper and _use their words_

(Lio had always been better at letting his actions do the explaining for him)

(his bare hands - all fists and bones and cleanly healed callouses)

_(his fire; fire that had nothing to do with housing aliens from another dimension in his body and mind and heart and soul)_

Lio was the strongest of the burnish

_“When the Boss’s flames are alive, the flame of the Burnish will live on!”_

The promare, he now understood, wanted to burn it all to the ground, and his urge to burn had been the strongest of them all

~~what did it mean~~

~~did the promare prefer him most because his bloodlust matched theirs?~~

Lio wore duty like a beloved security blanket. He was Atlas and Prometheus and Helios all at once. He was the burner and the burned.

He was-

he was-

_he was-_

(Atlas shrugged.)

When Lio was younger and still unfamiliar with the literal simmering heat of bone-deep rage that never seemed to be quenched and the monsters it made of them all-

Lio Fotia used to have a sister.

Younger.

the only thing they shared were their last names - _Fotia_

she had been born in front of him and the first time he had held her, still trembling from her perilous journey into this world that had already started testing her

their father had been on the phone, hammering out the last negotiations for her betrothal

And blinking away trembling tears that blurred her crunchy baby face from view

he had then sworn an oath, _I will protect you_

it was the first - but not the last - time he had taken up arms for someone else

Eos, they named her

if he was Helios of the sun, then she was the dawn of his light

_Hello Eos._

_Welcome to Earth._

_It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. I'll teach you how to ride a bike and sneak out of windows at night and use a slingshot and push you on the swing even though it’s my turn to fly._

_Eos, if there is something I could tell you, god damn, you've got to be kind, despite it all. You've got to be kind._

_I will make sure you have ample luxury to be._

It used to bother him

how they looked nothing alike

and it used to fill him with rage, that _burned burned burned_ , whenever her fiance would come by and dismiss her with a glance and not look at the hair she had painstakingly learnt over multiple hours from Youtube videos and then made him learn to do for her, and the dress she had changed her mind on, no less than 10 times

Eos liked pretty things

 _and_ , she used to laugh, _Lio, you are the prettiest of them all._

she liked to hold colourful butterflies and delicate sparrows in her hands and admire them

and then, she just... let them go

she always let them go

no matter how much it delighted her to look at them

she always let them go

and with her, Lio too, learnt a little about what it meant to be kind

(but he still hasn't learnt how to let go)

One careless afternoon, her fiance made her cry

That summer afternoon, Lio Fotia almost took his first life (and came into his burnish identity)

It was her cries that alerted him before he dealt the killing blow

_Later-_

Later.

~~when he was allowed to see her next~~

she brought with her bread and an unopened letter from their father

"What's in it?"

"I haven't read it"

"Hm."

they talked - not about the, now literal, flames that lived in his soul

but just talked

while breaking pieces of the bread to feed the fish in the fountain next to them

it was nice

right before she had to leave, she sat up and said the magical, familiar words, "Do you want to try something cool I saw on Youtube?"

Lio had smiled.

she had then taken out the bread clip that had been holding the bread packet closed

and clipped it onto his ear

"There." She had said, satisfied. "I knew that would work"

Lio had looked at her questioningly

Eos had smiled, "Your ears are just as thick as mine, Brother. So, I figured this trick would work."

Lio blinked.

Their ears were the same?

Lio had always searched for traces of similarity in her face, but had never found any

but maybe he had always been looking in the wrong places

"How do I look?" Lio said smiling, for the first time in a while

Eos had smiled brightly

and then

that smile trembled

"Like the prettiest thing in the world" she had said and then clutched him to her, not letting go

(but Lio caught sight of the white envelope from the corner of his eye)

and for the first time, he let go.

gently loosening her grip on him, he smiled, "Impossible. You are in the world."

Wiping at her eyes, too open and not knowing enough about the world to be discreet about it - and if Lio had any say in it, she _never_ would have to be discreet about it - she had shaken her head stubbornly

"No. A-and you have to promise me. You _will_ remain the prettiest person in the world. Brother, oh, Brother, your flames felt so warm and _safe._ "

Lio blinked.

Safe, huh.

 _For her_ , he swore - the second oath he ever made, _they always would be._

After she left, he opened the letter

 _Son, the Burnish Task Force will be collecting you in a day's time. We cannot be held responsible for harboring illegal burnish and this will impact your sister's prospects. She will be getting married when she turns 18, and cannot have a burnish for a brother_ -

Lio had just smiled, letting his flames consume the letter

_"What's in it?"_

_"I haven't read it"_

When did you learn to obfuscate, little dawn?

and tugging gently on the bread clip still attached to his ear, but not enough to make it let go.

That night, Lio Fotia ran away from his home and made the third oath of his life and started figuring out what it meant for his flames to be warm and _safe_.

Lio Fotia used to have a sister.

The only thing they shared were their last names - Fotia, and... their thick ears

and when she was to be married, her name would go but her thick ears would remain.

**Author's Note:**

> The line about “God damn, you’ve got to be kind” is inspired by Kurt Vonnegut bc yes.
> 
> Every time I read the promare wiki my life gets a little bit more wrecked. Last time it was “Lio Fotia gradually losing his clothes in the movie signals his becoming closer to Galo” and the day I wrote this it was “Concept art compares Lio’s earring to a bread clip,” and just……………… I would like to thank the universe for sending Promare to me in 2020.
> 
> See you next time


End file.
